A/N – Welcome to the first part of my Dark Lady trilogy. The first part is all written and I'm about to start work on part two. For the time being updates will be twice a week (Monday's and Friday's), but they might speed up once the second part is well underway.

As the title suggests, this is a dark Hermione story and it's very much a Hermione centric story. The romance between Draco and Hermione really kicks into gear in the second part, but the seeds are sown in this part. While this part is rated T, the second and third parts will likely be rated M as the Dramione romance heats up.

The epilogue is quite short, but it just sets the scene of Voldemort's return. I hope people enjoy this as I really love writing dark Hermione and have plenty planned for parts two and three.

All of Hogwarts were gathered in the grounds as the final task of the Triwizard Tournament took place. The task had been going for nearly an hour and both the Durmstrang champion, Viktor Krum, and the Beuxbatons champion, Fleur Delacour, were out of the running. That meant the winner of the tournament would be one of the Hogwarts champions, Cedric Diggory or Harry Potter.

While both Cedric and Harry were well supported by the crowds, Cedric was the champion most people wanted to see emerge victorious. Being a Hufflepuff he obviously had them all behind him and the Slytherins would support anyone over a Gryffindor. The Ravenclaws were less petty than the Slytherins, but they were supporting Cedric since he was the official Hogwarts champion. Harry was actually underage to enter the tournament and his entire participation in the tournament was highly suspicious and had caused plenty of trouble in the last few months.

"Where are they?" Ron Weasley grumbled. "How long does it take to find a bloody cup?"

"I hardly doubt it's a straightforward maze." Hermione Granger snorted in reply. "They'll need all their magical abilities to reach the cup."

"It's boring to watch though." Ron pointed out. "We can't see how well Harry is doing."

Ron had barely finished speaking when there was a commotion down beside the maze. Since Hermione and Ron were sitting fairly close to the front, they immediately spotted their best friend. Harry wasn't alone however, as he was clutching at Cedric, who was lying motionless on the floor.

"Something's wrong." Hermione said to Ron. "Let's get down there."

As Hermione and Ron pushed their way down to their friends the cheering in the crowds started to subside. The second Harry appeared the crowds went wild, thinking they had a winner, but they were now realising something was wrong.

"Miss Granger, Mr Weasley, stay back." Professor McGonagall suddenly appeared in front of the pair, stopping them from getting any nearer to Harry.

"What's going on?" Ron asked, trying to see around McGonagall. "Is Harry okay?"

"He's fine." McGonagall reassured the duo.

"What about Cedric?" Hermione questioned. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Professor Moody escorting a clearly distraught Harry back towards the castle, but Cedric was still lying on the ground with his father clutching onto his body.

"He's not alright." McGonagall said quietly. "Professor Dumbledore will address the students later, but for now let's start heading back to your dorms."

Hermione and Ron did as McGonagall asked and joined the crowds heading back to the castle. All the talk was about what had happened and those closest to the front of the crowds were passing on what Harry was saying when he reappeared. According to the rumours, Harry was saying Voldemort was back and he'd killed Cedric.

"Do you think it's true?" Ron whispered to Hermione as they arrived back in Gryffindor Tower. "Do you think You Know Who is back?"

"I don't know." Hermione shrugged. "We'll just have to wait until Harry comes back and tells us the full story."

"I suppose." Ron conceded as Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom joined the pair.

While Ron was busy talking to the three boys Hermione stared into the fire and let her thoughts drift. Events hadn't quite gone as she'd expected, Harry was supposed to be dead not walking around shouting about Voldemort's return. Hermione could only hope that the rest of the nights plan had gone to plan and The Dark Lord was in fact back at full strength.

"Harry!" Ron's shout of joy jolted Hermione out of her thoughts a few minutes later.

Hermione snapped back to reality as a shaken Harry joined the group beside the fire. By this point the whole of Gryffindor Tower had gone silent as they waited to see what Harry would say.

"What happened?" Ron asked.

"It was a port key." Harry answered quietly. "The cup was a port key, when we touched it we ended up in a graveyard. He's back." He declared, looking at Hermione and Ron. "Voldemort's back."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, making sure to hide her excitement.

Harry nodded as he began telling the story of what had happened at the graveyard. Hermione was thrilled to hear that Voldemort seemed to be back at full strength and he'd already gotten in touch with his inner circle of Death Eaters. From the sounds of things everything had ran accordingly to plan, apart from the fact Harry had somehow survived his encounter with Voldemort.

"How was the cup a port key?" Neville asked.

"Professor Moody." Harry answered. "He's not the real Moody, he's a Death Eater. He's been using Polyjuice Potion all year."

"I've always said he wasn't right in the head." Seamus muttered.

"What about Cedric?" Dean asked. "What happened to him?"

"Voldemort." Harry said quietly. "Cedric didn't even stand a chance."

"Why don't we let Harry rest." Hermione suggested, before the group bombarded him with more questions.

Harry smiled gratefully at Hermione as he stood up and headed towards the stairs. Once Harry was gone conversations erupted all across the common room. Leaving Ron to carry on talking with the boys, Hermione said goodnight and headed to bed. Her life was about to change completely and she wanted to be well rested for what was about to come.